Woodwinding down

Buchanan oboe player retiring from St. Joseph Municipal Band.

Buchanan oboe player retiring from St. Joseph Municipal Band.

September 14, 2006|SHERRY VAN ARSDALL Tribune Staff Writer

BUCHANAN Jack the Beagle loves the oboe. When Dixie Detgen plays, Jack howls along. When she gives oboe lessons, Jack won't be excluded. If he's not allowed into the room, he protests. Loudly. "Jack howls, and the kids will crack up and nothing gets done," said Detgen, laughing. Jack will be howling a little less from now on. After 50 years with the St. Joseph Municipal Band, Dixie is putting her oboe away. She decided to retire after the last concert of the season on Labor Day. "I've always liked to play, and now I have arthritis. It's beginning to slow me down, and 50 is a nice round number to retire at," Detgen said. "All good things come to an end, and I would rather leave while still playing halfway decent than keep on going and not playing so well." The Buchanan resident said she wasn't sure whether to hope for rain or sunshine during her last concert. If it rained, the concert would be canceled and she'd be able to avoid being overly emotional while playing for the last time. However, it did rain elsewhere, but not in St. Joseph, she said. The concert was a success. One of the highlights was a French horn duet played by her daughters, Kristie and Stacie Detgen, while she directed the band. Her daughters also commissioned the arrangement, "A British Heritage" by Jeff Kressler of Lansing, and it ended with a selection from her favorite piece, "Molly on the Shore." There's an inscription under the title on the sheet music that dedicates the song to her. "The song will be published this fall," Detgen said. If she still was teaching, the band students in the Buchanan Community Schools district might play the arrangement. "When I graduated from high school, I was going to be an English teacher or a music teacher," she said. She ended up being a music teacher and retired in 1996 after 29 years. She said there have been a lot of rewards for being an oboe player, even though it's a more expensive instrument. "It has a very unique sound, and you don't need many of them in a band or orchestra," Detgen said. The instrument has no mouthpiece and uses a really small reed. "I tell my students they have to look mad and wind their mouth around the really small reed, so to speak," she said. "There are two pieces of cane together, and that's why you blow on it and can't bite it." The fingerings are similar to other woodwind instruments and, "all woodwinds have some similarities and some differences," she said. The band director, Don Moely of Stevensville, uses Detgen's oboe to tune the 40 to 50 instruments of the group.Staff writer Sherry Van Arsdall: svanarsdall@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7004